Soothing Troubled Souls
June 14th, 2009Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; Colossians 3:12-17
Presented June 14, 2009, by J.D. Kline
The Second Sunday after Pentecost/Music Sunday
In her book Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott tells the touching story of a young man named Ken who began attending the small Presbyterian congregation where she worships in the San Francisco area. Ken was dying of AIDS, disintegrating week-by-week before the eyes of the congregation. Anne writes of Ranola, a devout African-American woman in the congregation, who from her seat in the choir loft looked askance at Ken, raised as she had been with the conviction that Ken’s way of life was an abomination. But Ken continued to come and worship with the small congregation week after week, and in a year’s time had won much of the congregation over. One Sunday, after having been so weak that he was unable to attend for several Sundays, Ken was back. Though looking more emaciated than ever from the disease, Ken nevertheless spoke joyously during the sharing time of his life and faith, and of the wonder of God’s grace and redemption. And then, as the congregation sang the old hymn, God’s Eye is on the Sparrow, reaching the chorus, “Why should I feel discouraged? Why do the shadows fall?” Anne noted that Ranola, who had been looking skeptically at Ken, suddenly altered her perspective. Ranola’s face melted, and she hurried to Ken’s side, lifting him up, holding him in her arms as together they sang with tears falling down their cheeks.
Observes Anne Lamott about that experience:
I can’t imagine anything but music that could have brought about this alchemy. Maybe it’s because music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, your breath. We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way.
Meeting in places we couldn’t get to any other way. Have you not experienced this power of music to touch hearts, to overcome differences, to heal hurts, to lift spirits? Periodically someone will say to me, somewhat apologetically, “I appreciate your sermons, but often it is the music in our worship service that most speaks to me.” There’s no need to apologize, for music may well be the means by which you encounter afresh the healing gift of God’s gracious love.